BEAVERS TRAVEL TO ARIZONA TO FACE #9 WILDCATS

Can our road schedule get any tougher. Lets see... First it was #6 TCU in Dallas. Then it was #3 Boise St. in Boise. Now today we have #9 Arizona in Tucson. Six weeks, 5 games, 3 road games, all against top 10 teams. I do not believe there is or has been a tougher start to any schedule in Beavers history or for that matter any D-1 school. I challenge another school to have this tough a schedule this early in the season.

I mean really, this schedule is crazy. And after this week it does not really get that much easier as the PAC-10 this year is as strong 1-9 as it has ever been. Even though USC is not picked to be a top performer they are still USC and the players they had are still there. Next week the Beavers travel to UW to face a Husky team that is very tough and fired up this year to have a big season for Jake Locker's last season at UW. I mean how long has that guy been playing ball at Washington? Like ten years?

I mean, who would ever think saying that the next 4 games would be the easiest on the schedule. At Washington, CAL, at UCLA and WSU.

Then after that comfortable stretch of games (ya right) the Beavers then run the gauntlet again with #26 USC at home, at #16 Stanford and #3 Oregon at home for the Civil War.

That will be 4 top ten teams this season, 3 of those on the road. WOW! All I can say is Riley really has a big job on his hands with a sophomore quarterback and make shift defense.

BY THE NUMBERS - CLICK HERE FOR COMPLETE PREGAME STATS

Like ASU last week the Beavers only win 7 of 32 statistical categories. Last week that did not matter as the Beavers pulled off the win in Corvallis over ASU 31-28. But this time the game is in Tucson with the loud, rude and rowdy UA student section. With the way the Beavers were playing on offense and defense in the first three games this season it will be a long time before they are leading in statistics in a pregame breakdown. But they are slowing improving their stats and stats don't win games. Heart and effort win games. And last week the Beavers showed lots of heart on offense getting lots of new players to step up and make plays as the Beavers had their best offensive game of the season.

The defense looked better early in the game but once again gave away points late in the game at home to make the game closer then it should have been.

Sometimes when you see that happen to a team you can say that they are learning and getting better because they did not fold their tent completely and managed to hang on. And that is true. The Beaver defense did play better against a tough ASU offense that put up a lot of points against the Ducks the week before. And the late breakdown was not entirely the defenses fault as special teams had a punt blocked at mid field that lead to the score that made it 31-28.

So the Beavers defense is showing improvement and they will need all they can get going into Arizona this weekend.

THE BOTTOM LINE

May confidence in the Beavers on the road this week is only slightly higher then it was last week when I picked the Beavers to lose at home to ASU. The Beaver offense did show signs of emerging from their long winter nap. But do they have enough fire power to hang with Nick Fowls and the rest of the UA offense? Last week the Beavers had more yards vs an opponent for the first time this season 416 to 364 yards. And it was the first time this season the Beavers held an opponent to under 400 yards offense and the first time this season the Beavers offense had over 400 yards on offense.

Arizona is not a strong rushing team and relies heavily on the pass to score points. But if the Beavers put to much emphasis on the passing game UA may exploit the run. So the Beavers safeties will be big in this game on how they play both the run and the pass.

James Rodgers returns to the Beavers lineup but after last week I am not as worried about him not being in the passing game. We have seen the emergence of some good Beaver receivers that will only help James get more open now that they have to respect the others as well. It will have to be the Beavers passing game that will break the game open as UA loads up the middle to stop the run at all costs. So the passing game with Katz, J. Rodgers and the others will have to be huge today on offense.

ESPN is picking the Beavers as their upset pick of the week in the PAC-10, and who am I to go against the experts at ESPN.

FINAL SCORE

BEAVERS 34
ARIZONA 28

GO BEAVERS!